Conventional instruments for applying dental compounds to a surface that is to be treated have the form of a brush. A multiplicity of bristles, which are secured on an instrument head, lie so close together that they are able to hold the dental compound between them. The instrument head is immersed into a container with the dental compound, such that the bristles can take up the dental compound. On the surface that is to be treated, the dental compound is pressed out of the applicator instrument and spread across the surface to be treated, for example a hole in a tooth. In brushes of this kind, the bristles are mounted on the instrument head in a separate production step. They are therefore relatively expensive to produce and cannot be miniaturized to an unlimited extent. Conventional brushes are often too large for the minimally invasive treatment of teeth that is customary today.
In the meantime, microbrushes have become widely used in which the front end has substantially radially oriented fibers affixed to it. The fibers are very thin and have low inherent stability. This has the effect that, in relation to the volume of the instrument head, a large amount of dental compound can be taken up and the dental compound can be easily pressed out of the fibers. However, it is not entirely easy to spread the dispensed dental compound across the surface that is to be treated, because each forward and backward stroke with the microbrush leads to further amounts of dental compound emerging from the microbrush and being applied to the surface. For the same reason, it is not easy to apply a precisely dosed amount of dental compound to the surface.